Getting to the next level always required ending something, leaving it behind, and moving on.

[1]

I ADMIT

I am easily distracted.

Dixie was very “linear.” She could start at “A” and end up at “Z” in an organized, systematic fashion. She stayed on point. She was amazing. I was envious.

I, on the other hand, also start at “A,” but my path to “Z” looks more like chicken tracks, first this way, then that, made while observing the other chickens, and picking up seeds here and there that may or may not result in anything of value, all on my way to “Z.” Some call this  Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Dixie saw me as creative chaos, a kind of formless matter preceding the existence of an ordered universe. I think of myself as a “mosaic multitasker.”

However you describe it, early morning on December 21, 2018, it all changed. A terrible fall, an ambulance ride, ER, open wounds, broken bones, a shattered elbow, and dark bruising from shoulder to ankle changed my world. At the urging of my surgeon and my children, engagements and travel planned for the next two months were cancelled. Every calendar space, for the first time I can remember, suddenly went blank. But not for long. The spaces filled again, only this time with doctors, more surgeries, and months of physical therapy. Why was this happening?

I AM RIGHT HANDED

and during the passing of weeks, I needed help to do simple things like dressing, eating with my left hand, driving to and from appointments. My daughter, Michele, was granted family medical leave from work to stay with her dad, sleeping on the couch in my living room for most of my immediate recovery, spelled for one week by my brother, Doug.

Time passed slowly as my pain reduced from 14 to 12 on a scale of 1 to 10, so I could think about something other than myself. One day I became aware of a voice from deep within, not commiserating, but gently chiding, saying, “So what is it I’ve said to you, you don’t understand?” I waited. Then came these words, clearly spoken, as though God were sitting across from me, “Focus more on fewer things.”

WE ARE NEVER TOO OLD

to learn new things—or to be reminded of things we should have assimilated long before. “Knowing when and how to let go when something, or someone, isn’t working—a personal relationship, a job, or a business venture—is essential for happiness and success.”[2] Yet while God is at work in the difficult times of life, letting go is difficult for me. Perhaps you can relate?

ENDINGS

invariably contain the seeds of new beginnings.

It’s true.

Life’s rhythms are simple, yet profound. First an ending, followed by inevitable chaos and finally, a new beginning.

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone,” Jesus said, “but if it dies, it bears much fruit.[3]

Endings.

Chaos.

New beginnings.

These rhythmic patterns regularly flow through the seasons of the human spirit, requiring time to complete their work within us.[4]

Over 500 years ago, in the classic Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis wrote, “When you are troubled and afflicted, then is the time to gain merit. You must pass through fire and water before you come to refreshment. Submit yourself to the will of God, and bear whatever shall happen to you for the glory of Jesus Christ, because after winter comes summer; after the night the day returns; after the storm comes a great calm.”[5]

Joseph N. Tylenda, S.J., notes the fact that Imitation was initially composed anonymously is “not surprising,” since the author writes in Book 1, Ch 2, that one should “love to be unknown.”[6]

In a world where achievers are honored and producers are rewarded and consumers are preyed upon, what might God be saying? To me. To you. What endings are you facing? What chaos are you suffering? What new beginnings are you experiencing?

Endings. For me, the Past is frozen and no longer flows—

Chaos. —For me, the Present is all lit up with eternal rays.[7]

New beginnings. For me, I am to “Focus more on fewer things.”

Say goodby to calendar spaces filled with endless plans and unfiltered busyness. Embrace solitude. Love to be unknown.

This “mosaic multitasker” has moved.

Literally.

[1] Henry Cloud, Necessary Endings. Harper Business, 1998.

[2] Ibid.

[3] John 12:24

[4] ENDINGS from Seasons of the Spirit, Ward Tanneberg. Lion Publishing/Cook Communications, 1998.

[5] The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis. First composed in Latin ca. 1418–1427.

[6] Tylenda, Joseph N. The Imitation of Christ. Vintage Spiritual Classics, 1998.

[7] The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, 1942